Excerpt from http://www.azcentral.com/style/hfe/food/articles/2011/03/30/20110330gluten-free-food-can-be-delicious.html by Karen Fernau – Mar. 30, 2011

Giving up bread, pasta, cookies and fried chicken can make for joyless eating. Add Friday nights without pepperoni pizza and beer, and you’re facing a grim culinary life sentence.

These are the initial fears of those who become ill from eating wheat and other gluten-based grains. Yet, breakfast without bagels is survivable.

“People come to me daily in tears, fearing that they will feel deprived for the rest of their lives. I assure them that you learn to live gluten-free like you would eat an elephant – one bite at a time,” said Lucia Schnitzer, co-owner with her husband, Ken, of Luci’s Healthy Marketplace, a mid-Phoenix mecca for gluten-free products.

As an evangelist for gluten-free eating, Schnitzer urges customers who have the intolerance to become food detectives, searching for the hidden offender in such unlikely places as salad dressings, herbal teas, meats, potato chips and any product whose label says “natural flavors” have been added.

Next, she urges them to eat without feeling deprived by taking advantage of the avalanche of new products that make it possible for those with an intolerance to gluten or who have the more serious celiac disease to eat the types of foods they were previously forced to avoid. Celiac disease is a genetic autoimmune disorder caused by eating the gluten protein in wheat and other grains, such as barley, rye and oats.

Beef
Angus_Beef
Kobe Beef
Wagyu Beef
Cuts of Meat
Chicken
Duck
Lamb
Pork
Quail
Turkey
Veal
Venison

About Nuts:
There is evidence that nuts have been around feeding us and our ancient ancestors since prehistoric times. The oldest evidence are some walnut remains which were found in Iraq and are thought to be over 50,000 years old!

The almond dates back to 3100-1100 BC in the region around Turkey, Cyprus and Greece. By the way, did you know that almonds are related to peaches? Pine nuts have been providing powerful nutrition to those living in the ‘Great Basin’ region of the US for many thousands of years.   pistachio is known savored for thousands of years, dating back to 7000 years or so to the Middle East. Long used along with almonds by travelers because of the compact, but potent nutritional value, this nut inspired some interesting legends, including the one that says the Queen of Sheba declared it an exclusively ‘royal’ food forbidding commoners to grow and eat it.

Monosodium glutamate, sodium glutamate, flavour enhancer 621 EU food additive code: E621. HS code: 29224220. (IUPAC names: 2-aminopentanedioic acid, 2-aminoglutaric acid, 1-aminopropane-1,3-dicarboxylic acid), commonly known as MSG, Ajinomoto or Vetsin, is a sodium salt of glutamic acid.

MSG is a food additive, popularly marketed as a “flavour enhancer” in Chinese cuisine /cooking. It was discovered and patented in 1909 by Ajinomoto Corporation in Japan. In its pure form, it appears as a white crystalline powder; when dissolved in water (or saliva) it rapidly dissociates into free sodium and glutamate ions (glutamate is the anionic form of glutamic acid, a naturally occurring amino acid).

MSG stimulates specific receptors located in taste buds such as the amino acid receptor T1R1/T1R3 or other glutamate receptors like the metabotropic receptors (mGluR4 and mGluR1) which induce the taste known as umami, one of the five basic tastes (the word umami is a loanword from Japanese; it is also referred to as “savory” or “meaty”).

The umami taste may have evolved to help animals ingest food that have high protein content and is of significant importance to the food industry because of its flavor enhancement properties.

Natural Occurence

Glutamate itself is a widespread amino acid: it is found naturally in human bodies and in protein-containing foods, such as peas, mushrooms, seaweed, tomatoes, fermented soy products, yeast extracts, nuts, legumes, meats and most dairy products. Some of the glutamate in foods is in a “free” form; and only this free form of glutamate can enhance the flavor of foods. Part of the flavour-enhancing effect of tomatoes, certain cheeses, and fermented or hydrolyzed protein products (such as soy sauce and soy bean paste) is therefore due to the presence of free glutamate. Asian cuisine originally used a natural seaweed broth, such as kelp, to bring up the umami taste in soups. Manufacturers, such as Ajinomoto, use selected strains of Micrococcus glutamicus bacteria in a bath of nutrient. The bacteria are selected for their ability to excrete glutamic acid, which is then separated from the nutrient bath, purified, and made into its sodium salt, monosodium glutamate.

Other Sources

Hydrolyzed proteins, or protein hydrolysates, are acid- or enzymatically treated proteins from certain foods. They contain salts of free amino acids, such as glutamate, at levels of 5 to 20 percent. Hydrolyzed proteins are used in the same manner as MSG in many foods, such as canned vegetables, soups, and processed meats. Another source of MSG is fruits, vegetables and nuts that have been sprayed with Auxigro, a growth enhancer that contains 30% glutamic acid.

Glutamate is present in a variety of protein-rich foods, and particularly abundant in aged cheese.

Discovery

Despite its ubiquity in common food products, the flavour contributions made by glutamate and other amino acids were only scientifically identified early in the twentieth century. In 1907, Japanese researcher Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University identified brown crystals left behind after the evaporation of a large amount of kombu broth as glutamic acid. These crystals, when tasted, reproduced the ineffable but undeniable flavour he detected in many foods, most especially in seaweed. Professor Ikeda termed this flavour “umami.” He then patented a method of mass-producing a crystalline form of glutamic acid, MSG. [1]

Commercialization

The Ajinomoto (???) company was formed to manufacture and market MSG in Japan; the name ‘Ajinomoto’ means “essence of taste”. It was introduced to the United States in 1947 as Ac’cent flavor enhancer. Modern commercial MSG is produced by fermentation [2] of starch, sugar beets, sugar cane, or molasses. About 1.5 million metric tons were sold in 2001, with 4% annual growth expected. [3] MSG is used commercially as a flavour enhancer, and is added as an ingredient to many snack foods, frozen dinners, and instant meals such as the seasoning mixtures for instant noodles.

Scientific review

In 1959, FDA classified MSG as a “generally recognized as safe”, or GRAS, substance. This action stemmed from the 1958 Food Additives Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which required premarket approval for new food additives and led FDA to promulgate regulations listing substances, such as MSG, which have a history of safe use or are otherwise GRAS. Since 1970, FDA has sponsored extensive reviews on the safety of MSG, other glutamates and hydrolyzed proteins, as part of an ongoing review of safety data on GRAS substances used in processed foods. One such review was by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Select Committee on GRAS Substances. In 1980, the committee concluded that MSG was safe at current levels of use but recommended additional evaluation to determine MSG’s safety at significantly higher levels of consumption. Additional reports attempted to look at this. In 1986, FDA’s Advisory Committee on Hypersensitivity to Food Constituents concluded that MSG poses no threat to the general public but that reactions of brief duration might occur in some people. Other reports gave similar findings:

A 1991 report by the European Community’s (EC) Scientific Committee for Foods reaffirmed MSG’s safety and classified its “acceptable daily intake” as “not specified”, the most favorable designation for a food ingredient. In addition, the EC Committee said, “Infants, including prematures, have been shown to metabolize glutamate as efficiently as adults and therefore do not display any special susceptibility to elevated oral intakes of glutamate.” A 1992 report from the Council on Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association stated that glutamate in any form has not been shown to be a “significant health hazard”. Also, the 1987 Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization have placed MSG in the safest category of food ingredients.

Scientific knowledge about how the body metabolizes glutamate developed rapidly during the 1980s. Studies showed that glutamate in the body plays an important role in normal functioning of the nervous system. Questions then arose on the role glutamate in food plays in these functions and whether or not glutamate in food contributes to certain neurological diseases.

MSG intolerance

There have been numerous studies of allergies and/or sensitivities to MSG, attributed to the free glutamic acid component, which has been blamed for causing a wide variety of physical symptoms such as migraines, nausea, digestive upsets, bad dreams, disturbed sleep, drowsiness, heart palpitations, hair loss, asthma, anaphylactic shock, rapidly increasing diabetes, and many other complaints. “Chinese restaurant syndrome” is often used as an example of the symptoms purported to be caused by MSG. Prompted by continuing public interest and a flurry of glutamate-related studies in the late 1980s, FDA contracted with FASEB in 1992 to review the available scientific data. The agency asked FASEB to address 18 questions dealing with: the possible role of MSG in eliciting MSG symptom complex the possible role of dietary glutamates in forming brain lesions and damaging nerve cells in humans underlying conditions that may predispose a person to adverse effects from MSG the amount consumed and other factors that may affect a person’s response to MSG the quality of scientific data and previous safety reviews. FASEB held a two-day meeting and convened an expert panel that thoroughly reviewed all the available scientific literature on this issue. FASEB completed the final report, over 350 pages long, and delivered it to FDA on July 31, 1995. While not a new study, the report offers a new safety assessment based on the most comprehensive existing evaluation to date of glutamate safety. Among the report’s key findings: An unknown percentage of the population may react to MSG and develop MSG symptom complex, a condition characterized by one or more of the following symptoms: burning sensation in the back of the neck, forearms and chest numbness in the back of the neck, radiating to the arms and back tingling, warmth and weakness in the face, temples, upper back, neck and arms facial pressure or tightness chest pain headache nausea rapid heartbeat weak pulse violent dreams bronchospasm (difficulty breathing) in MSG-intolerant people with asthma drowsiness weakness. In otherwise healthy MSG-intolerant people, the MSG symptom complex tends to occur within one hour after eating 3 grams or more of MSG on an empty stomach or without other food. A typical serving of glutamate-treated food contains less than 0.5 grams of MSG. A reaction is most likely if the MSG is eaten in a large quantity or in a liquid, such as a clear soup. Severe, poorly controlled asthma may be a predisposing medical condition for MSG symptom complex. No evidence suggests that dietary MSG or glutamate contributes to Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s chorea, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, AIDS dementia complex, or any other long-term or chronic diseases. No evidence suggests that dietary MSG causes brain lesions or damages nerve cells in humans, but there is in infant mice. The level of vitamin B6 in a person’s body plays a role in glutamate metabolism, and the possible impact of marginal B6 intake should be considered in future research.

References

• Jordan Sand, “A Short History of MSG: Good Science, Bad Science, and Taste Cultures”, Gastronomica 5:4 (Fall 2005). History of MSG and its marketing in Japan, Taiwan (under the Japanese), China, and the U.S.
• Michelle Meadows, “MSG: A Common Flavor Enhancer By Michelle Meadows” ,U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Federal Register, Dec. 4, 1992 (FR 57467)
• Federal Register, Jan. 6, 1993 (FR 2950)
• FDA Consumer, December 1993, “Food Allergies: When Eating is Risky.”
• Wikipedia

• 1oz = 28.35 gms.= 1 fl oz = 30 ml
• 1cup = 210 ml = 7 fl oz
• 1tsp= 5 ml = 1/6 fl oz
• 1 tbsp = 15 ml = 1/2 fl oz = 3 tsps

solids, measure heaped and liquids, to the brim.

Here’s an easy way to flame and serve a drink.

Difficulty Level: Hard
Time Required: 5 minutes

Here’s How:

1. Warm your glass before you begin.
2. Prepare your cocktail.
3. Pour a bit of your highest proof alcohol into a spoon.
4. Ignite using a long kitchen match.
5. Carefully pour flaming liquid into cocktail.
6. Serve immediately.
7. Extinguish before drinking.

Tips:

• Use extreme caution.
• For a fabulous sparkle effect, carefully twist and orange rind over the flame.
• Never drink while flame is still lit.

A tool known as an egg shell cutter is similar to a scissors in design and is used to snip off the top of a soft-boiled egg so it can be eaten while still in the shell. It is often made of stainless steel and is also known as an egg topper, egg snipper, or egg shell scissors.

I was always impressed with the art on Latte foam done at Barista… well! until I saw these awesome latte art. Seems, there is a restaurant in Vancouver (Caffe Artigiano on West 41st, Vancouver) where they dress up the lattes as in the pictures below. They work wonders with coffee, cream, milk , last but not the least , a little bit of imagination.

Dont miss watching the video too.

And if you wish to do a bit of more research on Latte Art, just do a search on “Latte Art” on youtube and you will find tons of videos

Gruesome but awesome !
Gruesome body parts greet customers of a bakery in Ratchaburi, Thailand. Artist and baker Kittiwat Unarrom has sculpted life-like heads, feet and hands from dough in the bakery’s kitchen and exhibits them in glass cabinets in the shop. He says his edible art lures one hundred visitors a day.

By Melissa Breyer:

How many ways can you use salt? According to the Salt Institute, about 14,000! The salt website has tons of handy tips for using salt around the house, and the best of the bunch — plus my additions — are listed below.

I can’t think of another more versatile mineral. Salt is the most common and readily available nonmetallic mineral in the world. In fact, the supply of salt is inexhaustible.

For thousands of years, salt (sodium chloride) has been used to preserve food and for cleaning, and people have continued to rely on it for all kinds of nifty tricks.

So with its nontoxic friendliness and status as an endlessly abundant resource, let’s swap out some toxic solutions for ample, innocuous, and inexpensive salt.

There are a number of forms of salt produced for consumption (and by default, housekeeping!): unrefined salt (such as sea salt), refined salt (table salt), and iodized salt. Kosher salt is sodium chloride processed to have flat crystals. And in case you’re wondering, Epsom salt is an entirely different stuff: magnesium sulfate to be exact (which is a salt that I consider to be, essentially, miraculous).

Here are just a few of the many ways you can put salt to good use in your home:

• In the Kitchen

Aside from all of the alchemy that salt performs in terms of baking chemistry and food flavor, salt has a number of other great applications in the kitchen.

• Test egg freshness.

Put two teaspoons of salt in a cup of water and place an egg in it — a fresh egg will sink, an older egg will float. Because the air cell in an egg increases as it ages, an older egg is more buoyant. This doesn’t mean a floating egg is rotten, just more mature. Crack the egg into a bowl and examine it for any funky odor or appearance — if it’s rotten, your nose will tell you. (Bonus fact: if you have hard-boiled eggs that are difficult to peel, that means they are fresh!)

• Set poached eggs.

Because salt increases the temperature of boiling water, it helps to set the whites more quickly when eggs are dropped into the water for poaching.

• Prevent fruits from browning.

Most of us use lemon or vinegar to stop peeled apples and pears from browning, but you can also drop them in lightly salted water to help them keep their color.

• Shell nuts more easily.

Soak pecans and walnuts in salt water for several hours before shelling to make it easier to remove the meat.

• Prevent cake icing crystals.

A little salt added to cake icings prevents them from sugaring.

• Remove odors from hands.

Oniony-garlicy fingers? I like soap and water, then rubbing them on anything made of stainless steel (it really works), but you can also rub your fingers with a salt and vinegar combo.

• Reach high peaks.

Add a tiny pinch of salt when beating egg whites or whipping cream for quicker, higher peaks.

• Extend cheese life.

Prevent mold on cheese by wrapping it in a cloth moistened with saltwater before refrigerating.

• Save the bottom of your oven.

If a pie or casserole bubbles over in the oven, put a handful of salt on top of the spill. It won’t smoke and smell, and it will bake into a crust that makes the baked-on mess much easier to clean when it has cooled.
Personal Care

• Extend toothbrush life.

Soak toothbrushes in salt water before your first use; they’ll last longer.

• Clean teeth.

Use one part fine salt to two parts baking soda — dip your toothbrush in the mix and brush as usual. You can also use the same mix dissolved in water for orthodontic appliances.

• Rinse your mouth.

Mix equal parts salt and baking soda in water for a fresh and deodorizing mouth rinse.

• Ease mouth problems.

For cankers, abscesses, and other mouth sores, rinse your mouth with a weak solution of warm saltwater several times a day.

• Relieve bee-sting pain.

Ouch? Immediately dampen area and pack on a small pile of salt to reduce pain and swelling. More bee-sting tips here.

• Treat mosquito bites.

A saltwater soak can do wonders for that special mosquito-bite itch — a poultice of salt mixed with olive oil can help too.

• Treat poison ivy.

Same method as for treating mosquito bites. (Salt doesn’t seem to distinguish between itches.)

• Have an exfoliating massage.

After bathing and while still wet give yourself a massage with dry salt. It freshens skin and boosts circulation.

• Ease throat pain.

Mix salt and warm water, gargle to relieve a sore throat.

• Around the House

Deter ants.  Sprinkle salt at doorways, window sills, and anywhere else ants sneak into your house. Ants don’t like to walk on salt.

• Extinguish grease fires.

Keep a box of salt near your stove and oven, and if a grease fire flares up, douse the flames with salt. (Never use water on grease fires; it will splatter the burning grease.) When salt is applied to fire, it acts like a heat sink and dissipates the heat from the fire — it also forms an oxygen-excluding crust to smother the fire.

• Drip-proof candles.

If you soak new candles in a strong salt solution for a few hours, then dry them well, they will not drip as much when you burn them.

• Keep cut flowers fresh.

A dash of salt added to the water in a flower vase will keep cut flowers fresh longer. (You can also try an aspirin or a dash of sugar for the same effect.)

• Arrange artificial flowers.

Artificial flowers can be held in place by pouring salt into the vase, adding a little cold water and then arranging the flowers. The salt become solid as it dries and holds the flowers in place.

• Make play dough.

Use 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt, 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons oil, and 2 tablespoons cream of tartar. Stir together flour, cream of tartar, salt, and oil, and slowly add water. Cook over medium heat stirring frequently until dough becomes stiff. Spread onto wax paper and let cool. Knead the dough with your hands until it reaches a good dough consistency. (Read about juice dyes here.)

• Repair walls.

To fill nail holes, fix chips or other small dings in white sheet-rock or plaster walls, mix 2 tablespoons salt and 2 tablespoons cornstarch, then add enough water (about 5 teaspoons) to make a thick paste. Use the paste to fill the holes.

• Deter patio weeds.

If weeds or grass grow between bricks or blocks in your patio, sidewalk, or driveway, carefully spread salt between the cracks, then sprinkle with water or wait for rain to wet it down.

• Kill poison ivy.

Mix three pounds of salt with a gallon of soapy water (use a gentle dish soap) and apply to leaves and stems with a sprayer, avoiding any plant life that you want to keep.

• De-ice sidewalks and driveways.

One of the oldest tricks in the book! Lightly sprinkle rock salt on walks and driveways to keep snow and ice from bonding to the pavement and allow for easier shoveling/scraping. But don’t overdo it; use the salt sensibly to avoid damage to plants and paws.

• Tame a wild barbecue.

Toss a bit of salt on flames from food dripping in barbecue grills to reduce the flames and calm the smoke without cooling the coals (like water does).

• Cleaning

Salt works as an effective yet gentle scouring agent. Salt also serves as a catalyst for other ingredients, such as vinegar, to boost cleaning and deodorizing action. For a basic soft scrub, make a paste with lots of salt, baking soda and dish soap and use on appliances, enamel, porcelain, etc.

• Clean sink drains.

Pour salt mixed with hot water down the kitchen sink regularly to deodorize and keep grease from building up.

• Remove water rings.

Gently rub a thin paste of salt and vegetable oil on the white marks caused by beverage glasses and hot dishes on wooden tables.

• Clean greasy pans.

Cast-iron skillets can be cleaned with a good sprinkling of salt and paper towels.

• Clean stained cups.

Mix salt with a dab of dish soap to make a soft scrub for stubborn coffee and tea stains.

• Clean refrigerators.

A mix of salt and soda water can be used to wipe out and deodorize the inside of your refrigerator, a nice way to keep chemical-y cleaners away from your food.

• Clean brass or copper.

Mix equal parts of salt, flour, and vinegar to make a paste, and rub the paste on the metal. After letting it sit for an hour, clean with a soft cloth or brush and buff with a dry cloth.

• Clean rust.

Mix salt and cream of tartar with just enough water to make a paste. Rub on rust, let dry, brush off and buff with a dry, soft cloth. You can also use the same method with a mix of salt and lemon.

• Clean a glass coffee pot.

Every diner waitress’ favorite tip: add salt and ice cubes to a coffee pot, swirl around vigorously, and rinse. The salt scours the bottom, and the ice helps to agitate it more for a better scrub.

Laundry

• Attack wine spills.

If a tipsy guest tips wine on your cotton or linen tablecloth, blot up as much as possible and immediately cover the wine with a pile of salt, which will help pull the remaining wine away form the fiber. After dinner, soak the tablecloth in cold water for 30 minutes before laundering. (Also works on clothing.)

• Quell oversudsing.

Since, of course, we are all very careful in how much detergent we use in our laundry, we never have too many suds. But if someone overfills … you can eliminate excess suds with a sprinkle of salt.

• Dry clothes in the winter.

Use salt in the final laundry rinse to prevent clothes from freezing if you use an outdoor clothes line in the winter.

• Brighten colors.

Wash colored curtains or washable fiber rugs in a saltwater solution to brighten the colors. Brighten faded rugs and carpets by rubbing them briskly with a cloth that has been dipped in a strong saltwater solution and wrung out.

• Remove perspiration stains.

Add four tablespoons of salt to one quart of hot water and sponge the fabric with the solution until stains fade.

• Remove blood stains.

Soak the stained cloth in cold saltwater, then launder in warm, soapy water and boil after the wash. (Use only on cotton, linen, or other natural fibers that can take high heat.)

• Tackle mildew or rust stains.

Moisten stained spots with a mixture of lemon juice and salt, then spread the item in the sun for bleaching — then rinse and dry.

• Clean a gunky iron bottom.

Sprinkle a little salt on a piece of paper and run the hot iron over it to remove rough, sticky spots.

• Set color.

Salt is used commonly in the textile industry, but works at home too. If a dye isn’t colorfast, soak the garment for an hour in 1/2 gallon of water to which you’ve added 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/2 cup salt, then rinse. If rinse water has any color in it, repeat. Use only on single-colored fabric or madras. If the item is multicolored, dry-clean it to avoid running all of the colors together.